Effect of planting geometry, nitrogen levels and zinc application on growth and yield of hybrid maize (Zea mays L.)

A field experiment was conducted during (kharif) season of 2016 at the Crop Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, SHUATS, Allahabad in Randomized Block Design with three replications and twelve treatments entitled “To study the effect of planting geometry, nitrogen levels and zinc application on growth and yield of Hybrid Maize (Zea mays L.)”. This experiment was conducted for comparing the performance of hybrid maize variety “MM2255”. It consisted of two planting geometry (60×15 cm and 45×20 cm), three levels of nitrogen (150,120 and 90 kg ha-1 ) and two levels of zinc (7.5 and 15.0 kgha-1). It was found that in T2 (60 × 15 cm + 150 kg N ha-1 + 15 kg Zn ha-1) highest plant height (200.47 cm), number of leaves per plant (14.27), dry weight (48.53 g). It also gave highest grain yield (5.70 t ha-1), and stover yield (14.76 t ha-1).The same treatment also gave highest B:C ratio(2.49) and net return of Rs 50018.56 ha-1 compared with the other treatments. This indicates that 60×15 cm spacing with nitrogen level of 150 kg ha-1and zinc 15 kg ha-1is suitable to get higher maize yield, compared to other treatments.